The City of Charlotte will host a Community Information meeting this Thursday evening on proposed changes to the Tree Ordinance, which could dramatically change the current tree preservation incentives for single-family development.

The meeting will take place Thursday, June 16, from 6-8 pm in Room 280 of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center (located at 600 East 4th Street). Staff is expected to unveil a proposed text amendment to address the issue, and all interested home builders and developers are strongly encouraged to attend.

In recent weeks, members of City Council have voiced concerns over a longstanding provision in the ordinance that grants higher densities and smaller lot sizes to developers who establish larger tree save areas on their sites. The concerns were raised after a handful of residents complained about the smaller lot sizes permitted under this provision for infill single-family development.

City Staff says there are 13 examples during the last two years of developers using Section 21-95 of the ordinance to subdivide larger lots into smaller ones by increasing the amount of trees that are saved. Neighbors and some Council Members have argued that the use of the provision is destroying the character of neighborhoods. For more details on this issue, see our May 17th blog post.

A public hearing on the text amendment will take place on July 18th, and Council is scheduled to vote on the changes in August.

REBIC opposes any changes to the density incentive in the Tree Ordinance, and will continue to work with staff and Council on this critical issue.